Dazed and Confused? Welcome to the Club.

Facebook has revamped its layout and then announced a “timeline” where your living history will be displayed. Just as you are adjusting to the new interface, another is coming.

Google+ became available to the masses. Huddle, a part of Google+, is now a new way to broadcast and just to make things fun Zagat was acquired by Google.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) was simple and easy. One Brand. One Site. A few easy decisions one had to make on price. Now you have two brands, two sites, and multiple prices all conflated into a process built to enrage.

HP’s future was its tablet and new operating system and its core was personal computers. Sorry, never mind. And they just dumped the CEO.

The founder of a company it acquired took AOL (NYSE: AOL) hostage; Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) fired its CEO without a plan as if its board was in competition with HP’s for which board would win worst board of the year. Blackberry suddenly seems to be in free fall, Windows 8 was announced long before many of us have even got a look at Windows 7.

And a large portion of your smart phone’s applications need weekly updating but do remember that your phone itself will be outdated on October 4…

Just following and discussing all the changes takes more time than using any of the products and services that are announced.

And it’s going to get more hectic than ever as the half life of products, services and ideas seem to contract to a few weeks from a few months.

There are several reasons for this—from the acceleration that comes from a silicon based world, increased competition that is a result of digitization burning through the barriers between industries (Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) competes with Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Dell, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Nintendo, Nikon…), network effects that scale first mover advantages, and the reality that continuous iteration is the best way to build products in a digital and connected world.

While this relentless, Darwinian and hasty path to the future is unstoppable and one we will have to get used to, there are some underlying realities that we will have to navigate around.

—The world might be digital but people are analog: Silicon based technologies continuously improve and are emotion free. Carbon-based life form’s (ie humans) ability to process and adjust is not scaling at the rate of digital change. This divide will be one that will be addressed by successful companies.

—The fast rate of change may slow the pace of adoption: Most organizations including content companies and consumer marketing companies tend to be conservative since they need to manage brands, profitability and long standing relationships. When things change so fast that it is like the weather in Chicago (“If you don’t like it, just wait an hour”), it gives people a reason not to make a decision.

So what is one to do since the world will not slow down?

—Build plans around people and not technology: Human needs and insights are the key. The world is not digital at its core but its people at its core. People among other things crave simplicity, value, connection and relevance. Do not build strategies around a particular device, platform or shiny toy. They will all end up in a musty attic somewhere.

Be as flexible, open and collaborative a firm or person that you can be: Since the only thing that will not change is change, try to ensure that you do not put all your eggs in one basket regardless of how solid that basket looks. Some years ago nobody went wrong betting on IBM. Then came Microsoft. They were a monopoly and out of nowhere there was Google. Now it is Facebook that is seen as unstoppable. This too shall pass—but your strategy, your firm and you will still be around if you are flexible in a twisting world.

Now, better check your timeline/feed, for while you were reading this piece Amazon may have bought Netflix Streaming, while Samsung bought Yahoo and …’

5 responses to “Dazed and Confused? Welcome to the Club.”

Excellent post, Rishad! Your tech observations support what I call the First Global Truth: Convergence! All the tech shifts are making companies and their products more similar and subject to increased competition. In a way, marketers should embrace the idea of platform vs partner! Meaning, I can no longer bet on the ‘who’ but I can get a handle on the ‘what’ based upon how consumers respond to the technology. Further, I believe the events of the past couple weeks illustrate what happens when you take your eye off consumers and you start chasing revenue. A dangerous tactic, indeed. I keep saying that marketers must relentlessly focus on their own stories and worry less about channel strategy. If the content is worth the experience, consumers will readily find it and share it. The issue with channel reticence is aggravated when marketers don’t have anything worth saying in the first place, and they still have to rely on channels to ‘push’ their mediocre messages out. That’s a real problem!

Well its true, Change is the only constant. We at AdAsia 2011, Asia’s biggest media, marketing, management and communication event, would like to take this opportunity and invite you to write a blog post for AdAsia 2011. The Theme is ‘Uncertainty: The New Certainty’ and we would be happy to carry your entry on our blog (http://blog.adasia2011.com). Do send us your entry at adasia2011@gmail.com